


The Calling (Stammi Vicino)

by victuurikatsu



Category: Yuri!!! on Ice (Anime)
Genre: Canon Compliant, Fluff and Angst, Idiots in Love, M/M, Soulmates
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-15
Updated: 2018-11-15
Packaged: 2019-08-24 02:34:19
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,751
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16631210
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/victuurikatsu/pseuds/victuurikatsu
Summary: After performing the Aria rendition of Stammi Vicino, audiences all over the world are enthralled and surprised at the gravity of Victor's longing. And they kept help but wonder, just who is he longing for? It takes nearly a year for him to provide the answer.





	The Calling (Stammi Vicino)

**Author's Note:**

> Hi! Please enjoy this drabble that came to life after I listened to Aria (Stammi Vicino, Non Te Ne Andare) multiple times. The power in the piece made me want to dive deeper into Victor's feelings and access all the fluff.

When Victor won the last Grand Prix Final with the Aria rendition of Stammi Vicino, it was met with critical acclaim. As always he brought such a poise and grace layered with humility and a yearning so heavy that everyone was transfixed on the message.

_“I’m here, but where are you? Find me, stay with me.”_

No one ever leaves Victor Nikiforov, they’d be a fool to do so.

And even though Victor felt like it wasn’t a big enough surprise to the audience, they were deeply shaken by it. Who was he calling out for? The confusion spurs from his persona as Russia’s most eligible and sought out bachelor. How can he pine when he’s notorious for wining, dining, and leaving without a single glance back? (Thanks to the tabloids notions of what his dating life must be like anyway).

All of the enthusiasts spend months after trying to dissect his performance through tears because this passionate longing is almost too much to bear. But every time they still have to continuously ask where does it come from? How do they make sense of it because people want Victor, they desire him, a chance to even be near him is a blessing, so what’s happening here? Again, he’s always the one leaving them before they can even blink, but despite the sudden separation, some are honored to have had their fragile hearts broken by him because they get to say they’ve felt his love.

But the thing is, it’s not his _real love_ , no it’s a carefully curated abstract of a feeling of what he thinks love might be, but he doesn’t know it first hand at all. No, it’s a feeling that’s described to him in various stories and fairy tales, maybe even a rom-com if Mila suggests it for the thousandth time cause it’s the only thing that makes her heart hurt less break-up after break-up. _And yet he doesn’t really know what it is_. Victor often feels like he’s broken inside because he doesn’t pine over the person but instead he pines for the feelings of love people describe in their different levels from beginning to end.

So imagine his surprise when this drunk Japanese skater challenges him to a dance-off, _completely sweeps him off of his feet_ , asks him to visit him on the off-season, and boldly even asks him to be his coach. He’s floored! So many proclamations at once and his head is swimming because those browns eyes are shimmering with glee and hope and no ounce of fear, something he hasn’t genuinely felt in ages. Now imagine his surprise when he sees that same skater the next day, and all of it is gone. How did it disappear so quickly overnight? He doesn’t hesitate to try to make him feel better by joking about taking a photo together (even though his phone is already filled with proof of the pure fun they had at the banquet the previous night). But no, this skater glances at him like a stranger, and turns his back on him.

He turned his back on him! No one ever does that!

And suddenly he feels it, a quickening pace in his heart, it’s erratically pounding and he can’t make sense of it. Months go by and he tries to forget it while diving deeper into his self-doubt. If his inspiration disappears, he’s nothing. The thoughts gets to be so consuming that Yakov tells him to take the week off to gather himself before he even thinks about getting on the ice for next seasons prep. So he settles down, holding on to his fluffy companion for comfort when he checks his socials and sees EVERYONE is going nuts and tagging him in this video of someone copying his Aria Program. When he opens it, he immediately notices it’s the same Japanese skater, he’s let himself go a little bit but he’s certain that’s him, _it’s all in the brown eyes._

And now he’s even more confused, what was his deal? What was the end game here? Victor researches him further and finds that everything he’d told him at the banquet was true, his family did own a hot spring inn in Japan, but what he wasn’t sure about was why after he clearly did this program perfectly there were rumors of him quitting all together.

Then he hears the call for action in his head, _“Be my coach, Victor.”_

And then there goes that memory of the feeling of his arms draped over him with certainty that he’d accept even though he never verbally agreed. Victor hesitates just for a moment and wonders if he can even take on a challenge like this but then takes a cue from this skaters book and just dives in head first with certainty that yes, if he can perfectly skate his high scoring GPF program then he can definitely coach him, quite frankly he might be the only one in the world that can.

Then the next few months are a series of blurs and new emotions tangling into one. Victor finds for the first time that he’s learning about someone else’s hopes, dreams, desires, their fears, their weaknesses, and their strengths and he’s retaining the information. He doesn’t toss it away or not think of his next step like all the other times, he finds that every day he gets to spend with Yuuri Katsuki it’s like a breath of fresh air cause he doesn’t ask anything of him except to be who he is, nothing else. He finds over the first few weeks he genuinely cares about him and maybe that had something to do with how Yuuri proclaimed he wanted to hold on to Victor, and honestly he felt the same way, genuinely. He wants him to succeed, he has to succeed. You don’t just create and move so fluidly like that to not earn the accolades. Which Yuuri so rightfully deserved.

Weeks turn into months, and Victor finds he’s deeply inspired by Yuuri, with his humble views and approaches to how he skates, and how he just tries so hard to remain motivated enough to push forward. He pushes him harder than before and says it’s how he shows his love, and he ponders that for a while because he thinks it might actually be true. Somehow, this Japanese skater stoked the coals and ignited that feeling he had been chasing after for years. He’s protective of him, he stays by his side unconditionally after a passionate plea in China provokes him to. And then when they’re separated for a few days during the Rostelecom Cup, he feels that familiar longing again. But it _really hurts_ this time, enough to cause him stomach pains, and a pounding in his head he again can’t make sense of. He’s never physically reacted this strongly of not being near someone or something before. Even when he’s not with Makkachin, for weeks at a time, it’s durable. But being away from Yuuri felt like he’d rather submerge himself in a frozen ocean ten times over than endure the distance.

And then Yuuri surprises him for what feels like the infinite time again and again, asking him to stay with him until he retires and he slips that it sounds like a marriage proposal and tries to ignore his heart skipping a beat and just embraces him because he accepts and he knows it. They always know without having to verbally say anything. The feelings intensify after Yuuri gives him a golden and round charm as a thank you for everything they’ve endured, and Victor wonders is that what love was? A constant confirmation and affirmation of thank you’s for being you and being with me? He’s giddy, he’s truthfully hopeful and he wants to scream from the highest mountain that he’s invested in staying with Yuuri, those who wanted to keep speculating what his calling out to was in the Aria rendition now had an answer, it was Yuuri he was calling for.

But, as mentioned before, Victor never knew the many levels of love one could feel from beginning to end, and Yuuri gave him that, including what he feared would be the end. He’d intentionally shattered his heart in China, but he never thought the tables would turn on him in Barcelona. He’s crippled with uncertainty and …grief? But he respects Yuuri, even though he wants to be selfish and beg him to reconsider, because didn’t they promise to stay with each other? The heartbreak doesn’t make him as ill as being apart from him had, but it _stings_ in every part of his core. He gave him all of these levels of emotions, he gave him the drive to fight for what he wanted to keep, because his calling was Yuuri, almost like it was destined to be so.

The relief that flushes over Victor when Yuuri propositions for another year of coaching, he can hardly contain his heart from bursting at the seams and exclaims he needs him to at least reach a 5-time champion status, it’s the only way to be even. But they are equal, in Victor’s mind, Yuuri awakened a new set of feelings that he had never been able to access before and it made his comeback stronger than ever, because he felt renewed, rejuvenated, he’d even go as far as to agree with commentators speculating that he had transitioned into a total rebirth, a new era of surprises with Victor Nikiforov.

Oh, he’s so thankful for the love and life he experienced genuinely for the first time in 28 years of living, and he feels absurdly alive on the same token. Now that he finally knows that love is in the actions and forms of so many things, he embraces it full on and practices it as best as he can. But his favorite depiction of it is being slightly awakened by a sleepy Yuuri in the middle of the night beside him in bed, who nuzzles him and gets as close as physically possible.

Yuuri sighs in content and peace, and there’s a smile that could outshine the stars before he whispers, “Victoru~, I love you.”

Victor’s heart skips, that same surprise he felt at the banquet after he had asked him to be his coach sinks in, but he holds him tighter and kisses the top of his wildly untamed raven hair and whispers, “I love you too, my Yuuri~.”


End file.
